Reference Architecture Series – 3. DevOps for ITSM

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The implementation (or transition), to a DevOps development process (the integration of both development, operational teams and processes), has proven itself as an enabler to reducing time to release, improved automation of repetitive processes and a key component of agile development and release. While agile development has led to the increased focus and development of the DevOps model, DevOps is not an all-or-nothing change. DevOps can (and should), be introduced and implemented in traditional development environments where appropriate and the improvement can be measured.

However, DevOps is not a single technology, process or tool. While standards are being developed and matured such as SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework), to embrace DevOps requires changes in how teams are structured, how responsibilities are shared and also the need to integrate and deliver services that enables the teams to be successful.

Along with the development solutions and processes, IT Service Management (ITSM) plays a key role in supporting DevOps practices and objectives such as incident management, deployment and application performance management to name but a few.

There are companies (IBM being one), with the portfolio and experience on the concepts, patterns for success and solutions that can assist your journey to DevOps maturity. For the purpose of this document, we are going to limit the discussion to the IT Service Management components and solutions IBM provides that enable or support DevOps integration and automation.